"Bye bye wind" garden table protects paper plates from breezes

Its name may sound like a remedy for flatulence, but don't let that deceive you. "Bye bye wind" is actually a conceptual piece of garden furniture designed to address that most pressing of issues: paper and plastic plates and cups being blown asunder by wayward winds when eating outdoors.

It's happened to all of us. Summer comes, and with it the opportunity to throw outdoor dinner parties for friends and family. But this year your invitations go unanswered. Work colleagues shuffle nervously around the water cooler when you mention the forthcoming festivities. Your calls are unreturned. It can mean only one thing. The memory of last year's debacle is still too raw in the memory. That single tragically unseasonal gust that sent plates flying, lacerating the sun-creamed necks, faces and fleshy bare arms of all and sundry with a thousand tiny-yet-excruciating paper cuts. The Horror! The Horror!

Fear not, though, because designers Marco Marotto and Paola Oliva have just the solution. No, not heavier plates. Bye bye wind is in fact a set of table and chairs with a number of cut-out recesses designed to guard paper plates and cups from the wind. And that's it, really.

There are a few more details. There are holes for cups and condiments, too. But, even if you squeezed more chairs around the table, you'd still be limited to four diners due to the number of plate-holes in the table. There are intriguing pockets at each corner that suggest the table could provide after-dinner entertainments (or perhaps they're bowl-holders or planting pots), and there are little pouches in the backs of the chairs for random artifacts.

Granted, the sort of event that necessitates paper plates generally involves about 84 (rather than just four) guests. But that's hardly the point. The design's presence on a Behance portfolio suggests that this is likely to remain a concept, though were it to be realized there's no doubt it would make a fun conversation piece. Practicality isn't always everything.